Radiation Safety Information Computational Center
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Radiation Safety Information Computational Center Oak Ridge National Laboratory POST OFFICE BOX 2008 OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE 37831-6362 Managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 Phone No. 865-574-6176 FAX 865-574-6182 Internet: [email protected] http://www-rsicc.ornl.gov/rsic.html No. 448 June 2002 "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out." -- Thomas B. Macaulay Printable PDF file of this newsletter available at: http://www-rsicc.ornl.gov/NEWSLETTER.html. Azmy Elected as Fellow to ANS Congratulations to Dr. Yousry Azmy, ORNL, for being elected to Fellow Membership of the American Nuclear Society. The ANS is recognizing Dr. Azmy's contributions to the advancement of nuclear science and technology through the years. Dr. Azmy is a member of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division and Mathematics and Computation Division. He will be honored at the Awards Luncheon June 11, in Hollywood, Florida. NOTICE RSICC will be offering a few data, processing, and computational tools free of handling, testing, and other fees associated with package transmittal. A ***NO FEE*** label will appear next to the package name on the web request page. The ability to provide these packages at no charge is due in part to advanced funding from the sponsors. To acquire these tools, follow the normal registration procedure for first-time or updated users. Then complete the WWW Request Form. The license and export control statements will need the user signatures, which is standard procedure. ACES POLE - Nuclear Community Needs for Computational Experts Online Reply RSICC wishes to pole the user community on the needs for ACES (Atomic Computational Experts Services) for users needing instant expert consulting via email or phone. Experts are on-hand for immediate help on problem solving and tool use in work supported for the DOE/NNSA/NRC/DOD communities. If you are interested in this service, please email us with a list of codes on which you want to receive help. Note the work scope areas to which you would apply the codes (GenIV, Homeland Defense, Reactor Safety, Consequence Analysis, Nuclear Criticality Safety, etc.) Please reply by June 30th to [email protected]. Error in Beryllium Metal Cross-Section Data A very significant error in the beryllium metal cross-section data contained in the 238- and 44-Group ENDF/B-V libraries was recently discovered by SCALE users at ORNL. Several critical experiments that involved beryllium metal as the reflector were found to have > 1% difference in calculated k-eff values between different versions of SCALE (4.3 vs. 4.4a). The Be metal data in SCALE 4.4 and 4.4a contains a factor of 2 scaling error in the Be thermal scattering transfer arrays. This error can result in non-conservative errors in calculated k-eff values of greater than 1%. Users should download the corrected data from the SCALE Download page and install according to the directions provided in the README file. This error is NOT present in SCALE 4.3. For more information, read the discussion on page 395 of the SCALE Notebook. ANS Presenting Historic Landmark Award to Argonne's IPNS Facility The Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) at Argonne National Laboratory was honored with the American Nuclear Society's Nuclear Historic Landmark Award on May 13 during a ceremony at Argonne's Illinois laboratory. ANS President Dr. Gail H. Marcus presented the award. The ANS Historic Landmark Award identifies and memorializes sites or facilities where outstanding physical accomplishments instrumental in the development and implementation of, and the peaceful uses of, nuclear technology took place. IPNS, a pulsed spallation neutron source sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, has served the scientific community with effective and efficient slow-neutron scattering capabilities since 1981. It functions as a national user facility, and accepts proposals from the world community of chemists, materials scientists, physicists, biologists and engineers. The IPNS, which has achieved a remarkable lifetime-average record of reliability of more than 95 percent, was a trailblazer in the new generation of neutron research facilities, and it continues to serve science as the community grows into new installations. The ANS Historic Landmark Award has been presented to 56 sites and facilities since 1985, and has recognized nuclear achievements across the globe such as the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in 1985, the High Flux Beam Reactor in 1987 and France's first nuclear reactor, ZOE, in 1994. Released May 7, 2002, ANS More on GEN IV --- The Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC) and the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) have prepared the following information for release this past month: “TECHNOLOGY GOALS FOR GENERATION IV NUCLEAR ENERGY SYSTEMS.” Approved by Generation IV Roadmap NERAC Subcommittee (GRNS) on April 13, 2001. For Presentation to NERAC on May 1, 2001 http://gen-iv.ne.doe.gov/pdf/finalgenivgoals_may01.pdf. The Generation IV technology goals derive from a set of guiding principles: · Technology goals for Generation IV systems must be challenging and stimulate innovation. · Generation IV systems must be responsive to energy needs worldwide. · Generation IV concepts must define complete nuclear energy systems, not simply reactor technologies. · All candidates should be evaluated against the goals on the basis of their benefits, costs, risks, and uncertainties, with no technologies excluded at the outset. --- Recent news from http://gen-iv.ne.doe.gov/ Generation IV www site of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, describes in detail the international need for new nuclear power and the evolution of nuclear power as a 'roadmap'. This roadmap describes the origination of the term GEN IV reactors, the deployment schedule, and the GIF, Generation IV International Forum formation. 2 ANS Calls for Deployment of New Nuclear Power Plants Over the next 18 years, generating capacity of electricity is expected to increase 40 percent to meet the growing demand for energy. To meet this staggering increase, the near-term deployment of 40 to 50 new nuclear power plants will be required, says the American Nuclear Society. Not only would the increased deployment of nuclear power plants help satisfy a growing demand for energy in the United States, it would benefit the environment and protect the atmosphere from emissions that many scientists believe is promoting global warming. Nuclear energy accounts for about 70 percent of all the emission-free electric generation in the United States, says a position statement adopted by the ANS board of directors. Failure to build new nuclear power plants would mean a significant increase in the emission of greenhouse gases and harmful particulates; more rapid depletion of finite fossil fuels; decreased diversification of fuels; and growing reliance on foreign suppliers. Nuclear energy, the second largest source of energy, contributes 20 percent of the United States' electricity production. To satisfy National Energy Policy goals of energy security and protecting against global climate changes produced by greenhouse gas emissions, the share of nuclear energy will have to increase. "If we are to achieve any degree of control over the ever increasing emissions of greenhouse gases and harmful particulates, we must increase the share of our electricity mix from renewable fuels such as nuclear, hydropower, solar, wind and others," says the ANS position statement. Released May 1, 2002, ANS Obituaries Dr. Ely M. Gelbard died April 18, 2002. His undergraduate work was at the City College of New York and after World War II he earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. During the war, he served in the US Army Air Corps as a radar technician. He was a Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society. Ely started his postgraduate career when the use of digital computers to solve the neutron balance equations for fission reactor core design and analysis was just starting to receive wide application. At Bettis during the mid 50's and 60's, he participated in the efforts which put the numerical methods for the solution of the finite difference form of the neutron transport equation on a firm mathematical basis, and he devised several approximation schemes that were suitable for numerical methods and also developed efficient algorithms for their solution. While at Bettis, he earned international stature in the field, authoring important papers in many variants of the solution procedures (spherical harmonics, Sn, synthetic methods, and Monte Carlo), including the book, “Monte Carlo Principles and Neutron Transport Problems,” with J. Spanier. Since 1972, when Dr. Gelbard joined Argonne National Laboratory, fast reactors have been the focus of ANL's reactor program, with its emphasis on more accurate computation of the neutron spectrum. His work in this area produced fundamental advances in the analysis of neutron streaming, collision probabilities, improvements in Monte Carlo methods, and neutron diffusion and transport within the nodal approximation. He also brought improved iterative solution strategies to bear on the equations of single-phase computational thermal-hydraulics analysis of passively safe metal-cooled reactor systems. He was consulted by many at ANL, at other labs, and at universities on a wide variety of technical issues, and invariably provided